[@Banana][@Azereiah][@Dark Light]

"Hold back for a bit longer, they're not finished in there yet. I'm getting readings of another energy surge, could fire off any second, so be ready for more of your fancy flyin'. When the team's ready for pickup, the shuttles have a recall function that'll help us scoop them up"

Stryker became aware of one of the androids hanging out behind him.

"Well kiddo let me tell ya, it isn't going that smoothly, but fine enough I suppose, given the lack of intel going in. Why don't you hop back over to your station? I'm sure you just heard, but we'll have more incoming fire in a second, probably best not to be standing around if any of those beams sneak through the shields"

Stryker's attention was drawn back to the datapad. Drone 116 was surrounded by friendly signatures, as expected, but Drones 772 and 900 had just pinged a fresh friendly IFF signal, on their way back to the hanger, and it wasn't moving. He logged in to 900's visual interface to get a view inside the station.

"Oh fuck" Stryker said under his breath. Lying at 900's feet was the barely recognizable corpse of Hadrian Saul. The arsonist's face mask had been shattered, a wide bullet hole in his left cheek was the only feature Stryker could distinguish between the mess of blood and gore that sat where the rest of his face should've been. His chest had a wide hole blown right through the armor, and slash marks that didn't look like they were from any weapon Stryker had ever encountered. Looking around, he spied Saul's flamethrower and revolver lying a short distance away, along with the bodies of at least a dozen troopers. The lights in this hallway had been shot out, and even with the drone's headlamp active, it was tough to see everything. He pushed the drone forward, while ordering 772 to proceed on to the others to help 116 carry Amy's armor back. Inch by inch, 900 stomped down the dark hall, gun at the ready. It reached a bend and Stryker angled for it to peek around the corner tactically before walking into a potentially hostile environment. It was dark back here too, but there were some lights at the far end about 200 meters away. Lying in a pool of this light was Arex, who looked in bad shape, but according to the drone's sensors, was still showing faint signs of life.

A flash of alert drew Stryker's attention. The drone's motion tracker had detected something moving quickly behind it. He sent an order to turn, but it was too slow. The drone was knocked off it's feet, and Stryker's view flailed about wildly as it tried to re-orient itself. The image cleared up and focused just in time to see a human-shaped drone. Structurally, it was more heavily armored than the Alliance AP drones, yet slimmer, particularly in the arms and legs, which were little more than thin metal beams joined by a ball-joint. Its head was a blue orb with a holographic image of a skull on it, which gleamed menacingly in the dark. The hostile drone brought its right arm up and activated a large laser blade. It emitted a scream, like a banshee's wail before the blade crashed into the drone and Stryker's connection was severed.
"Fuck" Stryker said, as he wheeled the comms back around to the channel for Grayson's squad.

[@PlatinumSkink][@Xandrya][@Tickout]

"Ugh" Grayson moaned as he hauled himself to his feet. One errant laser blast had grazed off his right shoulder in the firefight. It hadn't gotten through, but it had singed his suit pretty badly. One trooper still stirred slightly, not quite willing to die yet. Grayson put an end to that notion with a quick bullet to the head from his pistol. The gunshot echoing through the tight corridor to put an exclamation point on the encounter.

"Grayson, report in. This is urgent" Stryker's voice made him jump slightly. He shook off the fog and responded as he retrieved his rifle from beneath Xeltos' body.
"Copy that mate. We hit a bit of a snag there, 9 Feds slowed our progress, getting back to the objective now"
"Fuck the intel. Fuck the Alliance. Get your squad together and get them the fuck back to the hanger, bunker up by the shuttles until the others get back from planting the bombs. We've got a big problem. The Federation has Hunter droids aboard. I don't know how many, but one just took out Saul and the other drone. It might've done in Arex too, I couldn't see before I lost the feed"
"Wait, back up Stryker, Arex might be still alive? Then we've got to get him. I'm not sayin' this from a 'no man left behind' standpoint or any of that shite, but if he's still breathin', then we're gonna need him. At least find out why he attacked Amy out of the blue"
Stryker sighed. The worry in his voice was very noticeable. For good reason too, Hunter droids were notorious in their efficiency. Their toughness and battle-prowess was only dwarfed by their savagery on the battlefield. Whoever wrote the programming for the things was a sadistic son of a bitch, outfitting them with psychological warfare protocols and even a strict order to destroy the remains of enemy combatents if given the chance. They were not to be fucked with, not without an army at your back at least.
"Fine" Stryker finally said "I'll send the coordinates for where I lost the drone. Check it out quickly, then get out"

"Alright folks, you heard the man" Grayson said. A second drone had arrived during the conversation and began to assist the other unit in carrying away Amy's armor "We gotta get the fuck back, but there's just one little pit stop left. Maxi, you go on ahead with Amy, guide her back to the shuttles. Lataniva, you're with me"
He walked past Amy on his way to the front of the group and paused to pat her on the shoulder. He'd tell her what had happened later, unless she demanded to know right this second. 
"You alright?"

[@Turbowraith][@mackielars][@Rultaos]

"Acknowledged. Calculating. Confirmed" SAL said "You are correct, an extra catalyst embedded within the reactor will increase the chances of our primary desired outcome by 17.9%, upping it to a total of 87.4%. I'll stay behind once the primary explosives are planted and set the catalyst, to prevent you organics from being exposed to the mass amounts of radiation in the lower chamber. Just don't leave me behind, or I may interpret that as a hostile action and be forced to defend myself"

It sounded more threatening than SAL intended, but with no appropriate response in his database, he rolled back to the topic at hand. He looked to Benny again.
"Do we have anything with a manual trigger that we could use for this end? I'd prefer to not be obliterated in an early blast"